Day: July 17, 2009

However, Iâ€™m not convinced that industrial animal farming is possible without routine antibiotic use. Stuffing animals together over their own shit essentially ruins their immune systems; antibiotics keep them alive long enough to reach slaughter weight. The industryâ€™s very business model may be the root of the problemâ€”fixing it might mean slaughtering the meat industry istelf, and returning to smaller scale, pastured-based meat-production models. That would mean significantly less meat in our diets. No doubt, though, H.R. 1549 represents a step forward. It will be passedâ€”it at allâ€”over the meat industryâ€™s dead body. And I mean that literallyâ€”sort of. Hat tip to Maryn McKennaâ€™s blog Superbug, which should be on every MRSA watchers RSS feed.